Oil edged higher after the killing of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, stoked tensions in the Middle East, with traders waiting to see how Iran would respond.
Brent crude rose above $72 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was little changed. Israel killed Nasrallah in an air strike on Lebanon’s capital Beirut, dealing a major blow to the group and its sponsor Tehran. In addition, Israeli fighter jets bombed targets in Yemen following attacks this month on central Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Iran, for now, appears to be in no rush to escalate the conflict. President Masoud Pezeshkian stopped short of pledging a direct and immediate attack on Israel and, in his international debut at the United Nations, struck a relatively restrained note.